The mission of the Air Force is like a highly complex machine. Each piece of the machine is vital to it operating successfully. The E-9A Widget is a very small, yet highly important piece to that machine.

Arnold Engineering Development Complex engineers at the National Full Scale Aerodynamics Complex assisted in recent testing of sub-scale parachutes for the next mission of the Orion spacecraft, Exploration Mission-1.

The Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft was berthed to the International Space Station at 8:03 a.m., CDT, Oct 9, a key milestone in a new era of commercial spaceflight. The delivery flight is the first contracted resupply mission by the company under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. “I want to congratulate SpaceX and…

Lockheed Martin has been awarded three new contracts to support the supply chain needs of the Republic of Korea Air Force and Navy. Under the terms of the basic ordering agreements, Lockheed Martin will provide spare material and repair of military hardware for the Republic of Korea’s fleet of F-16s and P-3 military aircraft. The…

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Oct. 10 welcomed the selection of Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen to be the new alliance commander in Europe and the selection of Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. to succeed Allen as coalition commander in Afghanistan.

Boeing will continue assuring the worldwide availability of C-17 aircraft, which provide vital military and humanitarian airlift capability, through a $2 billion follow-on contract it recently received from the U.S. Department of Defense. The C-17 Globemaster III Integrated Sustainment Program provides support services such as forecasting, purchasing and material management for the C-17 and all…

A new robotic space technology spinoff derived from NASA’s Robonaut 2 project someday may help astronauts stay healthier in space and aid paraplegics in walking here on Earth. Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot in space, currently is working with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. NASA and The Florida Institute for Human and Machine…

ATK announced Oct. 9 that NASA has awarded the company a $50 million contract to complete engineering development and risk reduction tests as part of the Advanced Concept Booster Development for the Space Launch System.

Say “Africa” to most Americans and they think of “the Dark Continent” – a land beset by problems and disasters, far enough away that anything that happens there cannot possibly affect America. And they would be wrong, said Amanda J. Dory, deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs. “What happens in Africa definitely affects…

PALMDALE, Calif. – The U.S. Air Force’s fleet of B-2 stealth bombers will begin receiving new high-speed processing subsystems under a $108 million low rate initial production contract awarded Sept. 28 to Northrop Grumman. The new hardware and software – which include an integrated processing unit, a high-capacity disk drive, and a network of fiber…

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Intelsat S.A. has accepted its second Boeing 702MP (Medium Power) satellite, Intelsat 21, which was launched Aug. 18 and is enhancing Intelsat’s broadcast and communications services throughout four continents. Boeing introduced the 702MP spacecraft line in 2009 to meet customer requirements for satellites with 6 to 12 kilowatts of power. The…

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Pushing the Boundaries of Propelling Deep Space Missions

Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center are advancing the propulsion system that will propel the first ever mission to redirect an asteroid for astronauts to explore in the 2020s. NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission will test a number of new capabilities, like advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), needed for future astronaut expeditions into deep space, including to Mars.
The Hall thruster is part of an SEP system that uses 10 times less propellant than equivalent chemical rockets. In a recent test, engineers from Glenn and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, using a Glenn vacuum chamber to simulate the space environment, successfully tested a new, higher power Hall thruster design, which is more efficient and has longer life. “We proved that this thruster can process three times the power of previous designs and increase efficiency by 50 percent,” said Dan Herman, Electric Propulsion Subsystem lead.
Hall thrusters trap electrons in a magnetic field and use them to ionize the onboard propellant. The magnetic field also generates an electric field that accelerates the charged ions creating an exhaust plume of plasma that pushes the spacecraft forward. This method delivers cost-effective, safe and highly efficient in-space propulsion for long duration missions. In addition to propelling an asteroid mission, this new thruster could be used to send large amounts of cargo, habitats and other architectures in support of human missions to Mars.
Image Credit: NASA
Michelle M. Murphy (Wyle Information Systems, LLC) Read More

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